1d for president.

Last week, the grade 7′s went on experience week, 112 people went to Chiang Mai, Thailand and 40 to Beijing, China. I chose Chiang Mai, the only reason is because that I have never been to Chiang Mai before and I have been to Beijing many times. It was a big jump from grade 6 to grade 7 because least year we went to Gui Zhou, China to interview strangers, but this year we were actually taking a plane from Hong Kong to Bankok, then Bankok to Chiang Rai, and finally taking a 1 hour 30 minutes bus trip to the Maekok River Village Resort where we stayed. We stayed in the resort from May 6 ~ 11. The main focus of the trip was not only to relax and gain new experiences, but to help a school near our resort, build a new cafeteria and to play with the kids.

During the time period while I was there, I think it was pretty evident to my group that I tried to show two IB Learner Profile Attributes: Communicator and Risk-taker.

Even before the trip, I planned to be a risk taker because I knew I wanted to make the best of this trip and not make a drag out of it. So I started of with a positive attitude when I entered the camp and tried everything! Not only activities, but also food, it didn’t matter if it looked good or bad, I would eat it. There was also an activity that was called “The Confidence Course”, it is pretty much an obstacle course made on top of muddy water (which you do not want to fall in). In the first attempt, I fell in straight away. I was also a reflective thinker because after that first attempt, I thought about it for a long time, I thought about what made me fall, how could I do better? I thought to pass the first section, I had to lean forward towards to rope I was holding on to. (look at picture for reference) I would not have done it in total of 3 times if I was not a risk taker and I actually passed it!

Another activity that showed I was a risk taker was during rock climbing. As some of my friends know, I am TERRIFIED of heights. Never for a billion dollars would I go sky diving (maybe for a billion euro), but when I saw the rock climbing wall, it was terribly high, but as my risk-taking self took over me I somehow managed to be the fastest one to get up on the first try. I didn’t look down I just did it and got over it. For some other insane reason I decided to do the 2nd hardest one. Sadly, I could not complete this one, because I was not tall enough to reach one of the rocks, which lead on to being stuck in the same spot for 7 minutes. Oh, that was sure fun!

I also managed to demonstrate another IB Learner Profile Attitude: Communicator. When we visited the school, we were either assigned to construct their new cafeteria or play with the kids and teach them a little more english and games. The most challenging bit was teaching them how to play the games with the insignificant amount of Thai we know, hand gestures, and English. Here is where drama comes in handy. What my group did was we first asked the kids to watch what we were doing (in this case playing a game) and we made the largest and exaggerated hand gestures and actions to get an idea of what the game was like. Surprisingly, the strategy worked very well, that actually shows that majority of the Thai kids are visual learners. We were assigned games like Duck Duck Goose, Simon Says, Parachute Games, Wink Murderer, etc. It was a very good experience, to learn different ways to communicate. 

I don’t really know how to summarize this trip with words. There isn’t really something that I dislike about camp, every single activity was an uplifting experience. Even if I did rock-climbing before or kayaking or even just simply cooking in Hong Kong… there was something special, something that was rare in a school trip. All of these activities pulls everybody closer, it wasn’t a competition anymore like school, everyone can finally relax and realize that everyone is open-minded and willing to accept others. Everybody starts to show there true personality. And I think this experience is all about what you make of it. If you enter with a bad attitude, you will never be happy and it would be just a waste of time, but if you make it into something worth it, it will be a worth while memory you will always remember.

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